STRIDERS BIG ADVENTURE DIARY

Striders Diary - Thurs 12 October 2006

Striders Big Adventure

Strider has a very busy day in Shropshire, then visits a Victorian town. - MORE PHOTOS ADDED 18-10

Phew - I am exhausted - let me tell you all about my day.

St Leonard's CE Primary School and St John's Catholic School Walking Bus, Bridgnorth, Shropshire

I was invited to join the St Johns and St Leonards walking bus. This starts from a pub in Bridgenorth and then splits in two at a zebra crossing and the walkers go off to their seperate schools.
See photo below
I decided to follow the bus to St Leonards CE Primary School, and we carried on walking when we arrived, going round and round the playground - great fun!

I then went to St Johns Catholic School to visit the pupils in class. I visited 7 classrooms in all. They were just adding their Strider stickers to their wallcharts - and it was brilliant to see how full their wallcharts were!
See photo below

St Mary's Bluecoat Primary School

From there it was on to an assembly at St Mary's Bluecoat Primary school in Bridgenorth. It was their harvest festival, and they were looking at the countries that the ingredients for a pizza came from.

I knew that pizza came from Italy, because Italy is one of the 40 different countries that take part in International Walk to School Month and I have friends out there!

St Mary's Catholic Primary School, Shrewsbury

After assembly, I went to a different St Mary's school - it got very confusing! We walked twice around the playground in a big crocodile, laughing and joking with each other. Just because it is Walk to School month - it doesn't mean you can't be active once you are at school!

Holy Cross CE Primary School, Shrewsbury

After a massive cheese sandwich for lunch, I went to Holy Cross for their afternoon assembly.

Holy Cross run a scheme called WoW, which stands for Walk on Wednesday. Pupils that walk to school every Wednesday for a month are given a collectable metal badge. There are different badges for each month of the year. Each badge is a different animal.

The badge for September was a parrot, and there were lots of children wearing the parrot badge. They are now all working hard to try to get their next badge, which is a cheetah.

The road safety lady from Shropshire Council then chatted with the assembly about making sure you could be seen in the dark. I am nice and bright orange - so you can see me coming - but a lot of people wear dark coloured clothes in the winter, which makes it harder for cars to spot them. We then held a mini fashion show to show off some of the things you can wear to make yourself more visible.

Ironbridge Gorge and Blist's Hill Museum

I had had a very busy day, but I really wanted to visit Blists Hill Museum. This is an entire village where people live as they would have done in Victorian times - 120 years ago!

There were some very funny costumes. All the ladies had huge skirts, and most of the men were wearing flat cloth caps. Everything is exactly how it was in Victorian times - you even swap your money for Victorian coins to buy things. My favourite shop was the sweet shop. There were loads of really yummy looking sweets in huge glass jars. There wasn't a plastic bag in sight!

I really felt like I had travelled back in time, so I had my photo taken in a horse and cart (cars weren't invented then) using an old black and white camera. See what you think! See photo below

I can't continue my journey without your help - so keep walking!

On Thursday, 298 Walks to School were recorded on my website. Thanks to everyone who has already logged their journeys, but please keep adding your journeys. Find out how to record your journeys to school, and keep me on my Big Adventure. Keep walking!